NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — A cancer-causing chemical is spewing into the air, in Niagara Falls, from the nearby Goodyear plant. That chemical is being released into the air at rates higher than current legal standards.
Documents obtained by the 7 News I-Team show the facility knows it and so does the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
COMMUNITY CONCERN
Guy Mort grew up on 59th Street in Niagara Falls. Pictures show an idyllic childhood; playing outside, in the backyard pool, toasting marshmallows in the summer.
He had no idea what was happening at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber plant, a block away from his childhood red-brick house.
"It was a nice neighborhood to grow up in, but we didn't know what was going on over here [at the plant]," Mort said.
New York State's own mapping shows, for years, the Goodyear plant has been releasing a known cancer-causing chemical, called o-toluidine, into the air by up to seven times the current legal standard.
Most of this chemical in the air is directly concentrated over the plant and across the street.
This chemical is used in the rubber making process. According to the federal government, it is directly linked to bladder cancer.
Steven Wodka is a retired New Jersey based attorney, who's represented more than two dozen people from the Goodyear plant, alone. He says they've developed bladder cancer as a result of exposure to this chemical.
He does not believes Goodyear gave workers adequate warning about the dangers of this chemical. His concern now is for the community.
"I fear for the people who live outside the plant," Wodka said. "I don't think that people who live in that neighborhood to the east of the plant have any knowledge as to what's happening."
NEW YORK STATE KNOWS ABOUT THIS
Documents obtained by the 7 News I-Team, show New York State knows a high concentration of this cancer-causing chemical is spreading through the air over this Niagara Falls community.
Goodyear knows that too. In a statement, however, a Goodyear spokesperson told the 7 News I-Team
Goodyear's Niagara Falls facility produces low levels of ortho-toluidine emissions and is in full compliance with its current permit.
That current permit is decades old. Goodyear is operating under standards, set as part of a permit, issued in the early 2000s.
Standards have since changed. In 2021, the amount of o-toludine allowed to be released was lowered significantly, by New York State.
While those standards changed, Goodyear has not. The state notes the plant
is out of compliance with current standards, as Goodyear seeks a new permit.
"I'm wondering, how can this continue to happen," Wodka said.
IS NEW YORK STATE ALLOWING GOODYEAR TO VIOLATE THE LAW?
In a letter, sent in 2023 by the state to Goodyear and obtained by the 7 News I-team, a regional engineer from the state explains "…test results demonstrate…" equipment at the plant does not "adequately control various air contaminants generated by facility emission sources."
The State DEC goes even further, telling the plant
"The facility as currently constituted and operated is not in compliance with all applicable requirements."
That includes the emission of o-toluidine, that known human carcinogen. The state writes, "The expected offsite impacts…show significant exceedances of the current o-toluidine" guidelines.
Remember, the plant is operating legally under old standards and is allowed to continue its operation as normal.
Drantch: Is the state allowing Goodyear to violate the law?
Wodka: The state is allowing Goodyear to violate the law for certain, and it needs to stop.
Drantch: That will be alarming for so many people.
Wodka: I would hope so.
WHEN WILL GOODYEAR FIX THE ISSUE?
All of this is connected to Goodyear's desire for a new air permit from the state. Goodyear acknowledges,
The DEC has updated its ambient air guidelines for ortho-toluidine going forward, and Goodyear is working closely with the agency to identify and implement any changes needed based on those new guidelines.
But when will those changes actually happen? In an August, 2024 letter from Goodyear to the state, we learn from a Goodyear representative
Goodyear provided a preliminary assessment report that reviewed technologies that may be appropriate for consideration to upgrade the air pollution control systems..."
That Goodyear representative goes on to explain, "...the process for design, procurement, installation and commissioning the upgraded air pollution control technology may require approximately eighteen months to two years to complete..."
No official timeline has been established. Goodyear has not said it can't be done, but still the plant is allowed to operate as if it's "the time of the initial permit issuance."
"This has been going on too long, and someone needs to step in here and say, put a stop to it and order the company to clean up immediately," Wodka said.
In the meantime, people are getting poisoned, said Kim Diana Connolly. She is a professor of law at the University at Buffalo. Connolly is also the Director of the Environmental Law Program. She has no connection to Goodyear or the DEC, but voices frustration with the prolonged permitting process.
"We have things like this, and it can take so long and it is so wrong and it's the way it is," Connolly said. "DEC says comply and then negotiates a way that people who are regulated community members can come into regulation..."
Drantch: This negotiation has been going on for years.
Connolly: Yes and that happens all the time.
The state DEC has, for months, refused to provide someone to answer questions about this on camera. Instead, a spokesperson sent a statement to the 7 News I-Team acknowledging
Goodyear's air state facility permit will...require any necessary facility modifications and emission controls. DEC will continue to take the appropriate actions involving the Goodyear Chemical facility in Niagara Falls to ensure compliance with applicable air emission standards and the protection of public health and the environment.
Connolly calls this process with the DEC frustrating, citing the agency's lack of staff and resources.
Drantch: You're talking about a process that has for years been burdened by a lack of staff, an inability to expedite permits...
Connolly: Yes.
Drantch: But that's the status quo and people are being affected.
Connolly: I know they are. People are dying.
"There's simply no sense of urgency that people are being exposed to a known human carcinogen that has caused Cancer inside this plant," Wodka said. "Yet the people outside the plant continue to be exposed."
Wodka believes this is an urgent matter because "people outside the plant include old people and young kids," Wodka said. "They're they are much more susceptible
to the effects of exposure than people who can work inside an industrial facility. Some of them have died due to the disease. Those who have lived
it is an extraordinarily painful and expensive and debilitating life once they're diagnosed."
GOODYEAR WORKERS DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER
The Centers for Disease Control writes "O-Toluidine is known to be a human carcinogen…" and "causes urinary-bladder cancer in humans."
According to the CDC, "O-toluidine can be absorbed" by mouth, through the skin or by breathing it in.
That's why Wodka says some Goodyear workers are being diagnosed with bladder cancer. That includes his former client, Guy Mort.
"It's always in the back of your mind, you're going to contract it again, and the worst part in back your mind is, is it going to spread? You know," Mort questioned. "I mean, I'm lucky it hasn't spread, and lucky it hasn't come back. But there's always that fear it's going to."
Mort retired from Goodyear in 2020, after Goodyear agreed to pay for medical costs associated with his bladder cancer, for life. It was part of an agreement in a workers comp case.
"It's catching up with everybody," Mort said.
Drantch: So interesting that you grew up here and years later you worked really just across the street.
Mort: Yeah, yeah, I didn't plan on working there either.
Mort worked as a production operator and doing maintenance. He would take samples and work with chemical waste inside the plant.
Drantch: Did you ever have a concern about that chemical in particular?
Mort: I did, but I didn't, because I thought that all the safety measures are intact. I didn't think that was going to, you know, contract cancer.
Goodyear says it has stringent systems and procedures in place for the safe handling of ortho-toluidine, including double-seal pumps, dedicated shower rooms, ventilation and the required use of personal protective equipment.
The company also has a bi-annual bladder cancer screening available for associates. Mort says that's optional, though he feels fortunate to have taken the test.
"Not a good place to work. It's, it's not environmentally safe," he concluded.
Goodyear says it is committed to maintaining compliance with state regulatory and permitting requirements.
A spokesperson goes on to say,
The health and safety of our people and the communities in which we work is and always has been our top priority at Goodyear.
Still, a new permit has not been issued for Goodyear, now four years after the state implemented stricter standards for those seeking new permits.
